Revisiting the Disastrous Kotkaniemi Offer Sheet By Carolina

[Danarqhy]

Kotakniemi's playoff stats: 10 GP 0 G 1 A and had 27 points in the regular season this year all for $4,8M cap hit. Provided basically 0 offense in the playoffs.

Carolina let Vincent Trocheck go and rolled with KK. Trocheck now has 14 points, with 8 against his former team and a few huge points in the clincher.

The move to offer sheet KK started a chain of events that might have closed the Canes' contention window shut, and it all started as a petty PR troll job. This may be one of the most franchise damaging offer sheets we have seen.

Discuss.

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[um]

You speak facts.

 

[Hockeyholic]

They were so caught up in getting revenge for the Montreal offer sheet to Aho, it's almost as if they completely ignored the player himself. What his strengths and weaknesses were.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

but it let the Carolina Twitter account make some cute obnoxious content and thats what REALLY matters to that dork ass franchise

 

[WarriorofTime]

The move to offer sheet KK started a chain of events that might have closed the Canes' contention window shut

The X-Factor here is Alexander Nikishin, who was best defenseman in KHL and does not turn 23 until October, which is still not a Defenseman's prime. If he comes in and is an instant top-pair, PP1 guy, Carolina is probably automatically the Stanley Cup favorite.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

The X-Factor here is Nikishin, who was best defenseman in KHL. If he comes in and is an instant top-pair, PP1 guy, Carolina is probably automatically the Stanley Cup favorite.

Not until they fix the goaltending. They're wasting their window

 

[TheBeard]

They were so caught up in getting revenge for the Montreal offer sheet to Aho, it's almost as if they completely ignored the player himself. What his strengths and weaknesses were.

The funny thing is the offer sheet to Aho actually did them a favor.

 

[WarriorofTime]

They were so caught up in getting revenge for the Montreal offer sheet to Aho, it's almost as if they completely ignored the player himself. What his strengths and weaknesses were.

but it let the Carolina Twitter account make some cute obnoxious content and thats what REALLY matters to that dork ass franchise

You guys are too caught up in the narratives and soap opera here imo. The twitter account doesn't run their Franchise. Reality is Kotkaniemi is the prototypical "Brind'Amour" player and they were gambling that with his age and pedigree that he was going to make a big step forward in what would be RFA years, and with Montreal not being in a good cap spot, they could get him on a really good rate on a long-term extension. Obviously this did not work out. The offer sheet itself though? Meh, only 1 year. Yes a bit of trolling and pettiness with the $20 and some things said, but that stuff didn't matter. The 1st and 3rd they gave up are kind of whatever. The 8-year extension given that Kotkaniemi has not made a step forward is ultimately the real issue here.

 

[Byron Bitz]

The funny thing is the offer sheet to Aho actually did them a favor.

Yeah I didnt understand the Aho offer sheet, it was a good contract for Carolina, I’m surprised Aho even agreed to it.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Not until they fix the goaltending. They're wasting their window

Yes, I think Andersen ultimately isn't the guy. Kotchekov is TBD, but they'll need to cross their fingers on that one given the unpredictable nature of goaltender prospects.

 

[max21]

It’s the cry t shirts after winning round one that bit them in the ass, what the hell was up with that

 

[Hattrick Kane]

The X-Factor here is Alexander Nikishin, who was best defenseman in KHL and does not turn 23 until October, which is still not a Defenseman's prime. If he comes in and is an instant top-pair, PP1 guy, Carolina is probably automatically the Stanley Cup favorite.

Can’t call them a cup favourite until you see what they do this offseason.

They have a coach demanding a ridiculous amount of money.

RFAs include Drury, Necas and Jarvis, the latter two probably asking for 8 million+

UFAs are Guentzel, Teravainen, Noesen, Martinook, Chatfield, Skjei, Pesce and Deangelo. Can’t bring them all back.

And then there’s the goaltending issue.

We’ll see what they do but their depth is going to take a hit going into next year.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Can’t call them a cup favourite until you see what they do this offseason.

They have a coach demanding a ridiculous amount of money.

RFAs include Drury, Necas and Jarvis, the latter two probably asking for 8 million+

UFAs are Guentzel, Teravainen, Noesen, Martinook, Chatfield, Skjei, Pesce and Deangelo. Can’t bring them all back.

And then there’s the goaltending issue.

We’ll see what they do but their depth is going to take a hit going into next year.

They do have the Sunbelt Factor though, where players will take about $1 million AAV less because the taxes make up for it.

 

[TheBeard]

Yeah I didnt understand the Aho offer sheet, it was a good contract for Carolina, I’m surprised Aho even agreed to it.

Maybe Carolina was thanking Montreal by offer sheeting Koti?

 

[KevinRedkey]

Has the contract stopped them from signing anyone? They always seem to have cap space, and it's not like they gave much up.

Seems overblown to call it a disaster. It wasn't great by any means, but it's kinda meh overall.

 

[abo9]

You guys are too caught up in the narratives and soap opera here imo. The twitter account doesn't run their Franchise. Reality is Kotkaniemi is the prototypical "Brind'Amour" player and they were gambling that with his age and pedigree that he was going to make a big step forward in what would be RFA years, and with Montreal not being in a good cap spot, they could get him on a really good rate on a long-term extension. Obviously this did not work out. The offer sheet itself though? Meh, only 1 year. Yes a bit of trolling and pettiness with the $20 and some things said, but that stuff didn't matter. The 1st and 3rd they gave up are kind of whatever. The 8-year extension given that Kotkaniemi has not made a step forward is ultimately the real issue here.

I'm always shocked that people buy that it was "only" a troll job. If the Canes let Kotkaniemi walk after the 6M contract, I could entertain the idea.

But I have a very hard time believing that the Canes signed Kotkaniemi to an 8 years contract out of petty-ness, after he was in their system for a full year.

No. They saw the opportunity to obtain a 20 years old C with a good pedigree and took a gamble that he would develop into a good 2C - he was already ok as a 3rd line C after all. Looked good last year, but looks terrible this year.

 

[rahad]

Yeah I didnt understand the Aho offer sheet, it was a good contract for Carolina, I’m surprised Aho even agreed to it.

Marc Bergevin has the biggest clown in the NHL. I have no idea why he did such a bad offer sheet to Aho. I could understand, if the offer sheet has around 9m or 10m....

 

[12ozPapa]

Not trolling (I apparently have to say that before anything so I don’t get in trouble), but wasn’t it universally known to be a dumb move? Feel like this isn’t threadworthy

 

[Jee]

 

[MXD]

Has the contract stopped them from signing anyone? They always seem to have cap space, and it's not like they gave much up.

Seems overblown to call it a disaster. It wasn't great by any means, but it's kinda meh overall.

Trocheck, arguably

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

The funny thing is the offer sheet to Aho actually did them a favor.

No, the 5 year term made it a bad deal for Carolina. Teams don’t want their star players to reach UFA at 27

 

[JKG33]

I've said this before but it still makes me laugh... I'm not sure what's worse.. Habs fans over rating him for years or Canes fans insistence that he doesn't suck and it wasn't just a petty revenge offersheet

 

[Blueline Bomber]

So it’s apparently just a foreign concept that a 20-year-old former 3rd overall pick that was poorly developed by one organization could possibly find new life in another?

Carolina thought they could turn a distressed asset into a winner, like they had done previously with the likes of Nino Niederietter (sp) and a couple others. That was their primary motivation behind the offer sheet and the signing.

It obviously hasn’t worked out as planned, but it’s hardly the disaster that it’s made out to be. He’s a very easy buyout candidate, only costing the team 835k a year to do so.

 

[newsportsfan123]

I don’t understand why people try to dunk on Carolina with the whole KK fiasco. There was reports of Carolina trying to trade for him before they offersheeted him. This was not a troll job. At the time KK was young and I believe Carolina saw a Couturier situation where he would take longer to develop. Teams gamble on players all the time, luckily for Carolina if they want to move on from KK they can buy him out cheap on league minimum in a couple of years. Also, regarding Trocheck, Carolina was never going to sign a player going into their 30s especially with Trocheck having a massive injury issue probably two years before that. They let Dougie Hamilton walk for the same reason. I think the bigger issue is Jordan Staal, he is screwing them on the finishing side but is too good defensively to be let go.

Carolinas cup window depends on how good Nikishin and Kochetkov are. Nikishin should be here for the 2025/2026 season because the KHL extended their season to like mid may, so he couldn’t even make it if Carolina was to make a run. Morrow is also another player to look at if he can develop a solid defensive game he could replace Skjei. Carolina will make the playoffs for a long time until the Blue Jackets and the Capitals get better. Islanders have no prospects so they will be stuck for awhile and the Caps are in a similar situation. Jackets are the only team that could contend for the 3rd spot once their young players start to show up. Devils will eventually get better and probably push Carolina out of the second spot.

 

[Forge]

Do Carolina fans think that a buy out is likely? He's still under 25, right?